5°4 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
KANGAROO RAT. 
The Couiy (Sphiggurus insidiosus ) is a great climber, and is assisted in 
his arboreal excursions by his partly-naked prehensile tail. They are covered 
by short, sharp spines concealed by the hair. Any one who attempts to smooth 
its hair is apt 
to be severely 
wounded by 
this hidden 
arsenal. It is 
about a foot 
and a half long, 
and brown in 
color. It is de¬ 
cidedly lethar¬ 
gic, being very 
deliberate in 
its movements 
and some¬ 
times indolent 
enough to re¬ 
main motion¬ 
less in one spot 
for twenty-four 
hours. It lives 
upon flowers 
and fruits which it eats while comfortably seated upon its haunches. It lives 
in South America, where it is also called the sphiggure. 
In the genus Cercolabes, which includes the tree porcupines, the body is 
similarly armed with spines and spiny-hairs ; the tail is long and prehensile; 
all the feet are four-toed, with long and curved nails, the hind feet having each 
a rudimentary inner one, a small nailless tubercle, 
and being with the palm much expanded by a 
semicircular lobe on the inner side; the soles 
are rough and naked, the claws long, and the 
hind feet so articulated that the soles are directed 
inward; the lobe can be bent inward, being sup¬ 
ported by several bones, some supernumerary; 
the tail is thick and muscular at the base, 
slender and bare above, and prehensile at the 
end, the upper surface being applied to the 
branches, and the tail coiled in a direction just 
opposite to that of the monkeys of the same 
country. The muzzle is very movable, hairy, 
thick and obliquely truncated; the eyes small but skunk (. Mephitis mephitica). 
prominent; ears small and sparingly clothed with 
hairs; the incisors are narrow. The animal emits a disagreeable odor, somewhat 
like that of garlic. The food consists of fruit, leaves and tender bark. They are 
usually seen singly, and sleep during the heat of the day, feeding at morning 
and evening. They are harmless, easily reconciled to captivity, but have very 
little intelligence. They inhabit America from Mexico to Paraguay, living on 
trees, on which they are expert though slow climbers. 
